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If I had a time machine...

pdmjoker

pdmjoker

Well-Known Member
What would you do? I'll start:

If I had a time machine I would go back to the early 1700s and have a conversation with Antonio Vivaldi. We would discuss The Four Seasons, modern telephone communications and "hold music". Perhaps I could dissuade him from publishing them...
 
I'd go forward a bit until space travel is ubiquitous, grab a personal spacecraft, suit etc. and then go back to July 1969. I'd jump out as Neil Armstrong made his "small step" speech and put him off mid sentence so he doesn't quite say it properly.
Wait ... I've already done it!!!
 
Sosgez said:
I'd go forward a bit until space travel is ubiquitous, grab a personal spacecraft, suit etc. and then go back to July 1969. I'd jump out as Neil Armstrong made his "small step" speech and put him off mid sentence so he doesn't quite say it properly.
Wait ... I've already done it!!!
Click to expand...
I noticed! ;) Nice one! :)
 
Next, I'd go back 100 million years and find a baby T Rex. I'd teach it some basic arithmetic , go through the alphabet system, get it reading, play it some nice music, develop the math into algebra, calculus, quantum mechanics, give it a good grounding in creating writing, literary criticism, run through some major lines of philosophy, outline basis of politics and religion, tell it all about digital electronics, quantum entanglement, brane theory, multiverses and heat death of the universe, look deeply into evolution, DNA and genetics, natural ecosystems, and biodiversity. Together we'd develop a rapid cloning system so we can flood the Cretaceous era with T Rexes, then bring them forward in time altogether and eat all the flipping politicians in one meal and take over the planet. Possibly a few others too.
 
Sosgez said:
Next, I'd go back 100 million years and find a baby T Rex. I'd teach it some basic arithmetic , go through the alphabet system, get it reading, play it some nice music, develop the math into algebra, calculus, quantum mechanics, give it a good grounding in creating writing, literary criticism, run through some major lines of philosophy, outline basis of politics and religion, tell it all about digital electronics, quantum entanglement, brane theory, multiverses and heat death of the universe, look deeply into evolution, DNA and genetics, natural ecosystems, and biodiversity. Together we'd develop a rapid cloning system so we can flood the Cretaceous era with T Rexes, then bring them forward in time altogether and eat all the flipping politicians in one meal and take over the planet. Possibly a few others too.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a great idea! :)
 
My history passion is the American civil war.
A famous naval battle was fought between two ironclad vessels, this was the battle of Hampton Roads.
This was the battle that changed naval history and wooden vessels used for war became obsolete.
I would watch this from the riverbank from atop the bluffs, and watch as the two metal boats fired cannons at each other for about five hours. The USS Monitor finally drove away the CSS Virginia.

The other naval ship that caught my eye was a vessel built in Britain, and sold to the confederate navy, the class of boat is called a surface raider.
The CSS Alabama is the most successful surface raider in the modern age.
I would have been interesting to see in action.

Just one more thing, a man who volunteered for a regiment in the confederate army, as an infantry private, on the outbreak of war, he was only one of seven who survived the war out of over a thousand who volunteered.
He saw action in most of the battles in the western part of the war.
I have read his story a few times and it is how they put up with life in the army and the constant threat to life and disease.
I would like to question him on certain things, to get his opinion on how the war started and his reaction to life after the war.
 
Lamont D said:
My history passion is the American civil war.
A famous naval battle was fought between two ironclad vessels, this was the battle of Hampton Roads.
This was the battle that changed naval history and wooden vessels used for war became obsolete.
I would watch this from the riverbank from atop the bluffs, and watch as the two metal boats fired cannons at each other for about five hours. The USS Monitor finally drove away the CSS Virginia.

The other naval ship that caught my eye was a vessel built in Britain, and sold to the confederate navy, the class of boat is called a surface raider.
The CSS Alabama is the most successful surface raider in the modern age.
I would have been interesting to see in action.

Just one more thing, a man who volunteered for a regiment in the confederate army, as an infantry private, on the outbreak of war, he was only one of seven who survived the war out of over a thousand who volunteered.
He saw action in most of the battles in the western part of the war.
I have read his story a few times and it is how they put up with life in the army and the constant threat to life and disease.
I would like to question him on certain things, to get his opinion on how the war started and his reaction to life after the war.
Click to expand...

The Monitor and the Merrimack?
 
Lamont D said:
That was the name of the original vessel that became the CSS Virginia, when it was refurbished into an ironclad. The confederate government renamed it when launched in 1862.

Good question.
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I read a book about those two when I was a child, probably about 100 years after the battle. I figured the Merrimack was named for the river.
 
What peeked my interest, as a junior at school was in 1964/65, there was chewing gum collection cards, because of the anniversary of the civil war. I collected the whole lot.
If you look on ebay, you can still get the whole set of cards (without the chewy) but it is quite expensive.

Stay safe.
 
Cool. I don't remember the Civil War collection cards. I remember the Confederate caps and other memorabilia from the earlier 1960s, 1961-2.

By '64 the only bubble gum cards I was aware of were the Beatles ones! :)

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SaskiaKC said:
Good idea! I'd get one particular number of The Illustrated London News, lots of issues of Punch,
Sixteen, Life, Look, several specific issues of The National Geographic ...
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Good choices! I love Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, John Bull and I have a big stack of the Daily Mirror Weekend Omnibus from the 40s and 50s and I would love some more of those - so interesting!
 
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